Holiday weekend good news roundup, part I
Saturday, December 22nd, 2012- 26 things that happened this year to restore your faith in humanity. (Hooray for J who dropped this into comments)
- How Joe Biden (accidentally, of course) helped us all have better email privacy.
- To everyone’s suprise, V for Vendetta (which never aired in Chinese theaters) suddenly turns up on Chinese state TV. (Tip o’ hat to JB)
- Officer who slaughtered helpless dog will face criminal charges.
- “Carpe Media.” And good going, Brian Wilson.
- Court rules that antiwar activists can sue government agents who spied on them. (H/T D)
- An unfreakinglybelievable and long overdue development: Cops who terrorized a family are held personally liable and forced to pay! Granted, the judgement might have had to do with the fact that it was a cop’s family they terrorized. But still …
This video (assuming it hasn’t disappeared as a couple others did recently) takes about two minutes to get really interesting. But once it does … shazam.
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December 22nd, 2012
I can’t find a link to the video.
Yes… 100% behind Libertas Media Project.
December 22nd, 2012
Pat — That keeps happening when I schedule posts in advance. I paste in YouTube iframe code. I preview the post. Everything is okay. I even close the post and open it again to check. Everything still okay. Then by the time the post is scheduled to go live — the iframe codes have simply disappeared. This has been a problem all week and I’ve asked Oliver the webmaster about it, but so far he doesn’t know, either. I’ll just keep my eyes open and replace the videos as I can.
December 22nd, 2012
It’s working now.
WOW! I love these flashmobs; they are so ‘spontaneous’ (to the spectator/audience), that I’m sure it makes their day.
Anyway it makes mine. I had to travel INTO shopping traffic the other day just to get away from my own head and the dismality (a word?) of my own thoughts since the shooting, plus the politics of the past two months.
December 22nd, 2012
So I got to thinking, “What’s the most obscure thing you can think of, for which you can still find a flashmob”. And the converse, too.
Barbershop — yep, plenty of those.
Carlo Gesualdo — nope.
Orange Blossom Special — nope. Now this surprises me. You’d think Bluegrass would be represented, and it would have to include one of the all-time most performed tunes.
Inna Gadda Davida — nope.
Dueling Banjos — nada.
Well, I’m off to breakfast.
December 22nd, 2012
Video: I’m trying to imagine that happening in a US airport without involving a tri-county SWAT team response and emergency VIPR deployment to cavity search the entire orchestra on the spot. The confetti bombs would require a Predator/Hellfire strike.
December 22nd, 2012
Bear, I admit to having similar thoughts. So many of these flash mobs are staged in airports, malls, or train depots. I know a lot of them are commercially done this days and no doubt by extensive prior arrangement. But even so. Here in the U.S. there’d be a big freakout if anybody did more than just stand there and sing.
It’s a measure of how warped we’ve become without realizing it.
December 22nd, 2012
jed, now you’ve got me on a flash mob hunt …
December 22nd, 2012
There seem to be at least three “Flashmob—Carmina Burana” at YouTube; dunno if they’re all of the same performance:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=flashmob+carmina+burana+westbahnhof
Thanks; Orff’s masterpiece has been a great favorite since my teens. Maybe this is what will save the world…
December 22nd, 2012
Hehe, Claire, that was the point. But it’s fun. It’s a challenge for all us Freedomistas, for a holiday weekend.
I wasn’t surprised to find Nabucco. Would be somewhat apropos at the TSA checkpoint. “Oh, my country, so lovely and lost! Oh remembrance so dear yet unhappy!”
December 22nd, 2012
Claire: “…by extensive prior arrangement. ”
Based on other incidents, I can make a pretty good guess. Did you hear about the Georgia kid who was going to come to school dressed as Santa Claus and hand out candy the other day? He planned it well in advance. He bought the suit. He COORDINATED WITH SCHOOL FACULTY WELL BEFOREHAND.
Then he made the mistake of posting on FB that he was going to have a surprise for his fellow students.
Enter police (who more or less rationally investigated and reported he’d done NOTHING wrong). Enter dumbf#ck principal… who has suspended the boy indefinitely.
Apparently the only people who were frightened of the prospect of a generous holiday icon were the idiot principal (who seems to have forgotten this was coordinated with his staff and he could have stopped it by just saying, “No”) and an armed-drone-helicopter-parent who spends her time searching out her child’s f3ellow students’ FB pages for indications of homicidal holiday cheer.
Santa Claus+Candy+School = Police Response + Panic + Suspension
At least he didn’t include exploding confetti dispensers.
December 22nd, 2012
December 22th, (looks right, looks left), still here.
A bit disappointed you didn’t poke a little bit of fun at all the doomsayers. Too bad it’s been cloudy and windy around here to see if anything would’ve came by or happened in the sky. Although one could be forgiven given all the rain and high winds we had yesterday.
Of course if someone asked, I’d probably freak them out a bit by saying someone didn’t take the Julian/Gregorian switch into account and that it’ll happens on the strike of the New Years. Or some such Calculations and such.
Ah, we’ll, there’s always another Doomsday. ; )
December 22nd, 2012
Jim, just bookmark this link to stay updated:
https://www.google.com/search?q=harold+camping+latest+doomsday+prediction&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
December 22nd, 2012
A little thoughtful commentary on the “Mayan Calendar Prophecy” hoopla:
http://hawaiianlibertarian.blogspot.com/2012/12/when-shtf-its-teotwawki.html?m=0
December 23rd, 2012
Can anyone tell me if all East Coast Irish Democratic Party politicians are drunks? Or is it just the leadership?
December 23rd, 2012
I like flashmobs, too. Probably my favorite is the Russian one doing “Puttin’ on the Ritz”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNXd3wX_USc
As to the article about the police being found personally liable for the unwarranted
breakinsearch, please note that the victim was himself a police officer. Does anyone think that the same result would have obtained if it had happened to one of us plebs? Until that does this rates only a half a cheer.